Saturday, 12 March 2016

Yes one more very slight addition to my Vietnam Conflict project. I really need to get some games with that project this year. Anyway today is a 57mm Recoilless Rifle with three crew.

While the dead figure is by SHQ, (He had been waiting on my painting table for a good 6 months) all the rest are by Britannia. I bought the crew thinking the RR would be included but it was not. I remember thinking at the time. "Cor! that's a bargain" not realising the Recoilless Rifle was not included. LOL It all makes sense now.

Anyway I went to the 57mm as opposed to a larger calibre as my US troops are not overly blessed with armour, yes I do have some M113's and a Patton but this level of support should be rare on the table top. As a consequence Viet Minh Anti tank should be equally rare. Britannia do make a larger gun but this was much more common and the 57mm while heavy enough to carry through a jungle would be easier.

The crew consist of a spotter, who could also be an officer, a loader and one other. Giving a 3 man crew. All mounted on separate bases in case the gun or the crew take hits and can no longer fight and have to be removed.

The basing is very simple as well. Starting with a 2mm thick MDF base just coated with sand and painted a cheap acrylic brown. Clumps of static grass and bristles from a wall papering brush make up the reeds. Simple yet effective. And one wall paper brush lasts an age. I have so far managed to do 1 15mm FOW Parachute company and both the US and the Viet minh in 20mm (1/72nd scale) and still have about 1/4 of the brush unused. So considering the brush was only 99p (at the time) a very quick and easy basing product.

I am not saying this is my Vietnam project finished, but I think it is for now at the least.

Thanks for looking today and I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!

Although you can hardly see it I clipped of the metal base and drilled and pinned the figure attaching it to a resin base I had spare. By doing so and with the aid of a sharp knife and small file I was able to get the figure to do a shallow wheelie on the base t add to the feeling of taking risks and youth and mainly just because it was fun to do so.

I could not make a more dramatic wheelie as that would involve re-sculpting both the legs, and being honest I am a rubbish sculptor. So better just to not try at all on that.

Colour wise I went for bold and clashing colours of the type I do see kids wearing on occasion. I did have to change the colour of the hoodie 3 times (Dark Blue then light blue) before settling on orange. I find painting Orange very hard to get right but am pleased I did in the end as it does make the figure POP! I also did want the jeans a little lighter, but this is how they came out and I was happy with the result so brand new dark jeans it was.

As a Kid the skate board to have was a "pacer" which were yellow deck silver trucks and red wheels. So that is what this chap has. I know things have changed since I was a kid (dinosaurs no longer walk the earth for example and we are not playing WRG 6th edition anymore), so I concede the skate board is out of date but painting it did bring back memories.

I cannot remember where I got the resin base but it has hung around for a number of years so was about time it got used.

So this figure was my "Curtgeld" this year and it is probably in Canada as you read this As it was posted on Monday. No idea what it will get used for (IF at all) but it could be modern skirmish in any of its forms.

Monday, 7 March 2016

Having played 2 games of to the strongest and enjoying the simple mechanics a third game was to be played. As with the other 2 games I was given the troops and just had to get on with it. The two armies in question were Ptolemaic Egyptians and the Classical Indians. I do not believe the two armies ever fought each other so I am not aware of any historical precedence. But just looking at the army lists it is EASY to predict the result.

I was given the Indians. Facing off against Dave. With Relfie on my right and Kev diagonally opposite. Dave and Kev the Ptolemaics and me and Relfie the Indians. before any of this starts sounding wingng I will say I did enjoy the game but understood and vocalised the result LONG before it happened. Anyone with any knowledge of ancients has probably already worked it out. Both sides had a lot of units and both sides had limited space and I could have deployed far better than I did so some of it is my fault. And I put my hands up to that. If I had been a real life general I would have chosen a better place to fight the battle which allowed for manoeuvre which was about the only advantage we had. Still sometimes you have to fight in areas not of your own choosing. So fair play.

All the dice in pictures represent remaining missile weapons that unit has.

I did manage to score the first success and killed some Ptolemaic skirmishers so the game was of to a good start. Now the classical Indians had some raw quality longbow archers and a good amount of ammo. However neither Relfie nor myself were able to cause any lasting damage on the pike armed phalanxes as they closed the distance. All that happened instead was that we ran out of ammo and while we did disrupt them they were able to re order their ranks and move forward without much difficulty.

My cavalry on the left were able to stop Dave moving down my flank and went into position on turn 2 of the game and stayed there as I tried to move elephants to support but due to them being hemmed in and poor card draws were not able to support them. Just as well they did not need my support. While they did fail to kill anything else in the game they did stop Dave from advancing. And were my most valuable troops despite the points indicating otherwise. I did manage to get some heavy chariots close to that flank but they were unable to assist because of the terrain and location of enemy troops.

Relfie on my right had also run out of arrows and replacing them was a struggle. The right flank did seem to see-saw a few times, mostly sawing on the Indians But Relfie was doing OK. Dave and myself were not quite in a stale mate position as Dave did manage to kill all my skirmishers and seize my only bit of defensible terrain.

But despite trying to win the raw Indians with only 2 wounds wer in the end just no match for the Ptolemaic's in pike blocks with better saves and 3 wounds. So eventually the inevitable happened and the Indians lost.

Congrats to Dave and Kev on their win and commiserations to me and Relfie but at least we delayed the inevitable for as long as possible.

Final result was 6VP (Victory points) to me and Relfie and 16 VP to Kev and Dave. Kev to his credit did offer to swap side with me when I stated a the beginning that the forces were not balanced which was nice of him, but what was the point, it would still have been an Indian Loss and a Ptolemaic win!

If we had room to manoeuvre we might have been able to attack the pike blocks in the side (Relfie did manage it once against the same unit twice but the cards did not favour him. ) But in front of me was just a solid mass of pikes and unarmoured bowmen would have trouble killing them in any set of rules when they are out of ammo.

I do not blame the rules or the army lists but perhaps we did have far to many troops in far to smaller area so (Not our choice although we could have deployed better). My first time in using that army and not an army I would choose to use again. The army match up was just not good and you could see from the start how the game would end. I am sure some players would have done better. But we did what we could with what we had and took a long time in dying. I am sure some players who know the armies better would have faired so much better and may even win. But that on the day did not happen.